Well, I guess I'll let you all know what I've been working on these last few weeks...

BACK-STORY

We had replaced our old heavy wooden front door since the window panel kept falling out when opening/closing it. Ah, the miracles of children. They can break anything... Here's a representative example of our old front door...

See the glass? It kept falling out and during one storm, it fell out and scared the entire household nearly to death. Hence, it was time to change the door...

Anyway, I took the old door out back and busted it up for the fire pit. When busting it up, the section beside the hinges just would not break so I decided to hold onto it until I decided what to do with it. Being somewhat superstitious, I felt if it wasn't gonna break, then there was a reason why...

My step-daughter "Bert" (Brittany) soon gave me the reason...

With deer season rapidly approaching, I've been planning on getting things setup for the new year of hunting. Those plans include tuning my existing bow "Pheobe" as a back-up and getting things ready for another attempt at a "Dark Angel" build as my new year's equipment. My previous attempt at a "Dark Angel" was a complete failure; one that I am not willing to discuss at this time due to the pain I've endured during that "learning" process.

As for "Pheobe", I only have this one pic worth showing and it shows her sister "Melanie" at her side. I got their names by researching ancient names based on their light and dark risers. Turns out "Pheobe" means light ("bright and shining") and "Melanie" is ("dark, blackness") in ancient Greek. Anyways, here's their pic:

Alas, "Melanie" is no longer with me. She was made specifically for a friend at work and so she is with him now...

Back to the story at hand:

While getting things ready, Bert had asked if she could go to the archery range with me to shoot too. I said "sure, can you shoot Pheobe?" and she tried her hardest to pull her back and didn't get nowhere. Disappointed, she went on her way, understanding that she can't shoot my bows. A short while later, I was in the shed getting a screwdriver when I tripped over the old piece of door that wouldn't break.

Long story short, I suggested to Bert the idea of using that block of wood to hopefully make her a bow that plucks arrows for her. She and I spent the next several days trying to cut slats and grind them down to usable lams. Meanwhile, I was trying to derive suitable specs for her. I determined that she has about a 26" draw length and can't pull "Pheobe" (which is 52@28) more than 22" back placing her in the 35# range. So, I'm looking to make a bow that is no heavier than 35# at 26" draw length. Unfortunately, this is not a hunting bow, but at least she can go to the range with me (assuming it turns out). Since she helped me make her bow's lams, she felt it was only right that she got to name the bow. She came up with the name "Dusty" because of all of the dust created while grinding the lams.

Ok, so since this block of wood wasn't long enough to make a longbow or recurve, I decided to make a 3-piece take-down. Doing what I hope is due diligence, I determined that a 35# take-down bow would need no more than .204 stack-height using Bingham's bow weight chart. Unfortunately, I got tired of grinding beyond the .075 mark. Coupled with .050 black glass and .030 bow-tuff glass; that gives a stack height of .210 which is higher than the .204 required. Furthermore, all 4-lams are parallel, meaning that not only am I over sized stack-wise but since the lams are parallel, I'm assuming the finished weight will also be affected. So to alleviate these issues, my original intent was to make a large riser (18") with 18-degree pads. Also, Bingham's chart says to use 8 1/4" wedges. I chose a shorter wedge hoping to reduce some of the bow weight without to much risk.

As this entire process is a learning event for me, I've decided to do the bulk of the work before posting anything on the build because I wanted to make sure everything was working as planned. Well, today, I installed a loose string and got some preliminary tiller measurements that turned out rather well. I had feared this was another failed project because I have made *several* mistakes through out this build. Since the signs look promising, I am now posting to keep you all updated and to hopefully have you folks provide some sensible solutions to some of the problems that I am having...

ON TO THE BUILD

Ok, so as I stated, the lams are parallel lams at .075" with black glass (.050") on the back and bow-tuff glass (.030) inside. I had considered putting black glass (.050") on the belly (instead of bow-tuff inside) but I wanted to show the wood's grain as it is a beauty to me. Black glass would have hidden the grain (or texture is probably a better word) and put our stack height even farther off than what we already were. Unfortunately, due to finances, clear glass was out of the question since I had to use what was already on hand and I really didn't know how the wood would respond...

Look at this texture. Isn't it a beaut?

SO, here are the limb lams / glass all laid out.

AND here is how I hope it will look when I'm done.

ONLY had one glove to work with.

I didn't get any pictures of the dry run but rest assured, I checked BOTH limbs in a dry run before any glue was used.

HERE's the first limb in the oven. I had to modify the oven to fit the hose.

MISTAKE #1: Unfortunately, I now understand swededisiple's (?) hesitance in using that hose of his. After only about an hour, this hose went flat. Turns out there is a small hole near the plug of the other end of the hose. Since the glue was already drying, had been cooking for an hour, I recovered by taking the top part of the form off and wrapping box tape all the way down the form. Since I was worried about catastrophic failure at this point, I didn't think to get an illustrative picture.

Well, after cooking, I took the limb out. It looks fine to me so I figured to go for it. After all, I was only able to get 4-lams out of the door piece so it's either sink or swim now... And this is the first reason why I decided to wait before sharing my experiences...

DURING the second limb build, I didn't even bother to try the hose. Instead, I just simply wrapped it with the tape the same as I did with the emergency recovery of the first limb. All in all, it looks like it was ok. Here are both limbs with the ends initially trimmed down and the riser block. The initial trim pieces were intended to be tip reinforcement pieces but as you'll see later, it just wouldn't be...

UPON closer inspection, I could see obvious differences between the limbs. See the preliminary Top/Bottom designations on the pic above? This was because the first limb was several thousandths of an inch thinner than the second. I attributed these differences to the fact that limb one had air-pressure binding the lams together whereas limb two had no such assistance and expected radically different bends... . This picture clearly shows the differences. Can you see them? As it happens, this was another reason for my waiting to share...

MISTAKE #2: After cutting the riser block for 18-degree limb pads, I proceeded to drill the bolt / pin holes. I took LOTS of time drilling in a practice board to make sure I got the right size bits for the various parts. Although you can't see it with this pic, I used the WRONG size bit when drilling the bolt holes. Furthermore, even though during all of the practice runs, the jig I made worked like a charm; when it came to the real deal, NONE of the holes lined up...

AFTER realizing this mistake, I figured the way to fix it is by bolting the limbs onto the riser and at least making sure that the limbs are square and centered on the riser correctly. Then once I was sure that they were, I drill new pin-holes straight through the limbs and into the riser. While doing so, I intentionally drilled them at different spacings to make somewhat of a guarantee that they will always line up and not accidently put on the wrong pads. I know I could just shape them differently, but at this point, I was really getting discouraged and "didn't care"...

WITH the limbs bolted on, I was able to begin shaping them. Taking the limbs back off, and changing the tapes, I marked the center of the limbs down the entire length of the limb. I also marked the limb at the end of the fade (wedge). I then marked, on the tip end, a tick 3/8" on both sides of center. This will give a 3/4" tip. I then drew a line from the wedge line to each tip and sanded the limbs down to those lines. To take the bulk of the meat off of the limb, I used my 4" disk sander but for the finer details I used the belt sander (very lightly). This picture shows the rough trimming (after using the disk sander).

See, Greywolf? I used a respirator mask do-hickey too.

NOW it's time to check what I have been afraid of checking this whole time. Tiller...

I reattached the limbs. Stuck a 16" 2x4 board between a loose string and the riser to get a general idea of tiller. Now, since this is using a loose string I know it isn't all telling, but at least I get an idea as to whether or not it will bend good (or nearly the same). My intent was to get about 6" to 8" of pull on the limbs to see if they bend properly. It looks like about 6" and it looks good to me.

These pics show the tiller at the recurve bend (tip end) of the limbs.

This one looks to be about 9 1/8" mark on the ruler.

This one looks to be about half-way between 9 1/8" and 9 1/4" so call it 9 3/16"? That gives a 1/16" difference with about 6" of pull on the limbs.

While this 1/16" difference at 6" pull on the limbs is a bit disconcerting, I figure a little bit of sanding could alleviate that difference fairly easily. Furthermore, I had Bert pull back on the string slowly while I observed the bend of the limbs. To my eye, there wasn't much (if any) difference in bend. Another cue that this *may* just work out after all. Remember, I'm looking to make Bert a bow to take to the range with us; nothing more!

AND finally, here's the tiller measurements at the end of the riser blocks. Again, in my opinion, not much difference that can't be corrected...

This one is crosses at the 16 1/2" mark...

while this one is a smidge below that...

FEELING good about the odds of success, I cut the original riser block (which was 16" x 1 3/4" x 5 1/2") into about half its size. Turns out, I can probably get 2 risers out of it. By the way, for the riser, I took a 1" x 6" x 48" oak board from Menard's and cut it in half (1" x 6" x 24"). Glued those together with a 1/4" x 6" x 24" oak board in-between.

This picture shows the 2" x 4" used to test the tiller with as well as the rough dimension'd riser block... See the extra holes in the limb pads? Yeah, ugly aren't they? Got to figure out a way to cover that up...

AS I was trimming the limbs to length, I have no idea yet what length the bow will be (54" - 58" as best guess right now), I kept the pieces so I could try to use them as tip reinforcements. My original trimmings didn't fit the curve of the tip of the limb an isn't (as Greywolf would say) "Light-tight". Even though I'm concerned about the success of the build, I have again gained a sense of "caring" about the results. Therefore, I want to minimize the glue lines as much as possible. Turns out, there was one piece that was "Light-tight" to both limbs (yeah...) and that's the one that is cut in half...

PREPARING for the tip reinforcements, I then sanded both pieces of the tip reinforcements and the tip ends of the limbs themselves. Before sanding the limbs, I placed some tape just below where the reinforcements are going to be. This was to help keep me from sanding too much of the tip while gaining a secondary benefit in keeping the glue from smearing to far down the limb itself. I ended with cleaning all soon-to-be-glued parts with denatured alcohol...

HERE are the two tip reinforcements as they are placed into the oven...

SMOOTH-ON was used for the tip reinforcements because I don't have any other type of glue to use (not even super-glue)... As such, I want to cure them but not at the same temps as was used to glue the limbs together for fear of delamination. This time, the oven is kept at a constant 160-degrees (vs the 190-degrees of the limbs).

IT IS at this point that the project is to be picked up at a later date... My tip reinforcements are still cooking and I will be able to get back at it tomorrow.

So, all of you experts out there, is the 1/16" difference reasonable at this stage?

I was told, today, that "hardwood doors" are actually pressed wood dust. That would make sense in the texture I'm seeing in the lams and the dust that was flying around giving Bert her inspiration for the name. What's interesting is that if it's just pressed wood dust, it sure does seem to display the same characteristics as regular wood. Hopefully, all signs being positive at this point, that the glass holds it all together.

K.C. KregerSW Rep Oklahoma Selfbow SocietyCustom Leathercrafterwww.swingingkdairygoatfarm.com"Democracy is two wolves and alamb voting on what to have forlunch. Liberty is a well armedlamb contesting the vote."Benjamin Franklin

Ok, so I've not had much time to work on Dusty these last couple of days, but here is what I have been able to do...

First, after bringing the limbs out of the oven, I cleaned up the glue boogers. While doing so, I've rounded off the ends of the tips a little bit. I didn't want to overdo it tho. I don't have a pic for that though, since I didn't think anybody wanted to see the results of such a simple process...

HOWEVER, after cleaning up the boogers, I eventually took the limbs to my band saw. Although I use it, I do not like it at all. I can't cut anything with a left-wise bend. Right wise bends aren't much better and a straight line? Fagettaboutit!

Anyway, I used the band saw to try to remove some of the blockiness of the limb tips. Essentially, it took the slightly less than 3/4" thick tips down to just under about 1/2" with a workable fade that I should be able to clean up with a file and sand paper...

This first image shows how I've trimmed about 1/3 of the height from the tip reinforcements...

THIS image shows how uneven my band saw blade is while trying to trim it down. Nothing I can do can seem to straighten that out. Cutting lams out of my band saw? Out of the question...

GOOD news is, I can (hopefully) use files to even that out to something somewhat usable.

NEXT I was able to mark and cut-out the riser to its rough shape. I used Greywolf's riser example from his build-along for inspiration...

Luckily, Bert really loves that design. In fact, here she is pulling it back again (with a loose string) trying to get a feel for the bow's handle. As of right now, it hurts her hands. Of course, I still have to round off the edges and such...

I was hoping to get a good idea of how the limbs were pulling now but given the angle I was at to try to capture a bit of her face, I'm not sure what it looks like. I can say that I have to do a better job of securing the limbs to the riser. So far this week, after installing and removing the limbs several times, the threaded inserts came out a few times.

It's true that I haven't glued them in yet due to the fact that I know I screwed up the limbs. My plans will be to add threaded inserts of the proper size to fit the 7/64" (or whatever it was) hole sized bolt in the limb. Of course, this means that I will have to re-drill the riser accordingly.

When we left off the other day, I was mentioning how i screwed up the limbs mounting holes. In fact, they were so bad that I was afraid to put any kind of real strain on the limbs because the threaded inserts kept coming out. Additionally, the pin holes that I drilled straight through the limb itself was allowing a lot of play and wiggle. I didn't like that either. So, after some time thinking, I decided that the way to fix those issues was to drill the holes bigger.

So, the limb locking bolts got upgraded from 1/4-20 to 3/8-16 and the pin was upgraded from a 3/16" pin to a 1/4-20 threaded lock bolt. To fix it right, required 4-different drill bits and 2-taps. The 3/8-16 had a 1/2-12(?) outer thread pattern which required a 29/64 drill bit with a corresponding 1/2-12 tap. Meanwhile, the 1/4-20 had a 3/8-16 outer thread pattern with required a 5/16 drill bit and 3/8-16 tap. The below picture shows all of the required parts that I had to gather up.

I don't remember the two drill bits I used to clean up the limbs themselves. The way I determined them was by drilling holes in a scrap piece of wood with progressively smaller bits until I couldn't get the bolts through. Then I'd back up one bit and use it. Here are the new bolts holding the limbs on. I do feel better with this setup if not a bit "over-protective"...

So, next came the rounding of the limbs a bit. I don't want a splinter to ruin the whole project - there's to good of a chance of that happening already - so I rounded off the edges of the glass and wood. Initially, I was using the belt sander but after a brief brushing on the belt I chose to go the good-ole'fashioned route: file!

Again, it's easy enough to ruin this project... I don't want to increase those odds anymore than I have to. This picture gives you an idea of what I'm after - about midway through the process...

After doing some filing of the edges, these splinters were starting to bother me. Do you see them? The ones where the holes were drilled? I have been trying to figure out how to get rid of them but haven't come up with anything on my own yet. Any suggestions? I know that they are covered by the washers but it still seems like bad ju-ju to me to leave them there...

Well, I got to where I was happy with the limbs to a point I figured it would be safe to go for a full draw so I made a flemish string for it. I think the string is a bit to long but it's only the second one I've ever made... Anyway, it's measuring 58" ntn. After stringing her (him?) up, I put him on my tillering post and pulled on him taking some pictures as I did...

Uh-oh! Is that a hinge I see on the left? That would be the lower limb... If so, how would I fix it before I go any further? I'm open to any and all suggestions so please, help...

Just in case it's my imagination, I had Bert pull it back twice for me so I can get some pics. Tell me what you think...

And a back-shot...

It sure looks like a hinge to me... Does that mean this project has failed? It's already under weight. My scale shows it is about 27# @ 26"...

To begin with, while waiting for a response on the above hinge issue, I started the day by rough sanding the riser. I got all of the corners rounded and form fitted to Bert's hand; that is, all be the sight-window. Once Bert was happy with how it felt, I had her be my "Hand Model".

Here she is being the best hand model that she can be... See how the sight window still needs some work?

Next, once the riser was in decent shape I saw that there still was no responses or suggestions to the hinge problem; and me being impatient, went to work on it myself. I placed the bow on my tillering post and gently sanded the belly of the limbs down until I got an even tiller. I figured, with the limbs being wood, it was better than sanding on belly glass.

Initially, however, I was sanding on the top edge of the glass in order to achieve a softer bend with the top limb as it appeared to be to stiff. Once the top limb was bending, nice and round like, I worked on the bottom limb that was appearing hinged to me yesterday. After weakening the top limb however, the hinge wasn't as apparent. So by sanding, using 80 grit paper, little-by-little each limb in turn until tiller was the same @ 26" I got a nice even tiller.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid to do any more sanding on the limbs but if you can see in the picture, the limbs are not bending quite the same but they do have the same tillers at the riser ends and 4" from the tip. I think I'll call it good there... Don't you think?

Once the tiller was ok as I described above, I began rough shaping the limbs at the riser end. While not quite as pretty as some of the other folks on here, I think they look pretty good...

So as I've decided that at this point, I'm nearing the finish line and am ready to begin final shaping and sanding. I"ve got my 3-files and all the parts ready to go...

And what better way to enjoy that part of the process than lighting a fire and enjoying the evening...?

I use a 45 degree chamfer on my drilled holes in the bottom of the limbs it does 2 things, #1 it makes the alignment pin easier to go in, and 2nd is stops the glass from going any further with splintering, also to help stop that, C clamp a block of wood so the glass won't splinter out (Blow out) and I only drill One set of limbs with a drill bit, then either sharpen it or get another.

I don't see a hinge, I see the bottom limb bending more, that can be remedied by sanding the top limb on the belly side to aid it in bending, this will cause you to lose a little poundage, and that can be remedied by shorting the limbs by a 1/2 inch on each end (If they is important to you) then reshaping the limbs.

Also Just as a suggestion round the arrow shelf, the less contact with the arrow has on the shelf has the less that can go wrong with the shoot. Round it both ways to where the arrow sits and the width of the shelf on the front and back of the riser.

Other wise good looking bow. they will only get better the more you build, I'm sure there are things you'd do different on the next one. Just happens that way. Congrats !

Oh and you can do a over lay on the limb base too with some fancy wood that will help keep anything from happening too.

Thanks, Greywolf, for your suggestions. I don't really have much to show for an update but I have done a bit of work over the last few days.

First, I spoke to Bert about Dusty's appropriateness as a hunting bow. At ~27#, there's just no way I could allow her to use it for hunting. Not even close to legal limit... However, now that It's nearing completion, she is really insistent on a bow for hunting. I had to explain to her that thanks to Greywolf's suggestion, I could at least make it stronger than it was. She was all for it and helped me to cut the existing limb tips off. As it stands, in my opinion, it was a good call. He now pulls at ~33# by my scale. Of course, I don't trust my scale - it's just a simple $7 luggage scale from Walmart. So I had her shoot it a few times. Turns out, I'd call it her max weight. She can pull it back and hold it for about 30-secs before her arms begin to show strain.

I also rounded off the arrow-shelf as suggested above. I don't want to round it off anymore because she has a hard time keeping the arrow in place as it is. I figure, in this case, more contact will probably be better.

Finally, I've been doing a lot of sanding on the riser. I had started with 40 grit sand paper and am now using a 320 grit sanding block.

I still have to do a few more things that may take me some time to do...

I want to cover the limb holes where the splinters are showing with some kind of psycodelic(?) buttons. I suspect by placing something solid over top of them, it will help prevent any of the splinters from lifting up anymore.

Also, I need to re-add tip reinforcements and reshape the tips. I can't seem to find any suitable reinforcement pieces. I've tried using chunks of the last block of the door from which Dusty came from but I can't get the wood to bend enough to follow the curve of the limb without getting super-thin. I have also considered using some young buck's spike horns for reinforcements but they are considerably narrower than the limbs.

Now I have to ask: what is the purpose of the tip reinforcements anyway? That is, they sit on the back-side of the bow so they can't do anything structurally to the bow's limb. It seems to me that if the tip gives out, the reinforcements won't make a bit of difference. Do I really need to worry about them? Being parallel lams, I don't get much bend out of the limb ends where the recurve bends away from the archer so I really can't see reinforcements helping out in the event of catastrophic failure...

Anyway, I still need to stain the riser - probably gonna use a gun-stock stain that I've already got - and then seal the whole bow. Any suggestions on what to use to seal it with?

So, that's about where I'm at with this project. It could take a bit to get things finished up as I still need to find the buttons / overlays for the limbs and tips.

Now I have to ask: what is the purpose of the tip reinforcements anyway? That is, they sit on the back-side of the bow so they can't do anything structurally to the bow's limb. It seems to me that if the tip gives out, the reinforcements won't make a bit of difference. Do I really need to worry about them?

If your using B-50 Dacron strings then no. The Reenforced tip over lays are for the more modern string materials. as the lack the stretch(forgiveness) that Dacron has.So there is more shock sent into the limbs and that will cause them to split, or worse blow up. The over lays just look nice, the original Bear bows never had them, nor the Pearson bows, or a few other early built bows.

Most splits started in the string groove so by the time it was noticed it was too late.

Also, "Bert" is "gripping" the string, when she pulls back it will pull the arrow off the shelf almost 100% of the time.You may want to teach the Deep hook, which is simply making the 3 fingers hook before touching the string and keeping the hook with the fingers in the first joint of all three fingers till she is ready to release, then she just relaxes her fingers and let the bow pull the string off her finger tips.

Also, "Bert" is "gripping" the string, when she pulls back it will pull the arrow off the shelf almost 100% of the time.You may want to teach the Deep hook, which is simply making the 3 fingers hook before touching the string and keeping the hook with the fingers in the first joint of all three fingers till she is ready to release, then she just relaxes her fingers and let the bow pull the string off her finger tips.

I've noticed that too (and have tried to get through to her on that) but since I'm not ready for her to "practice" shooting more than the two or three shots during this whole process, I've not been able to completely teach her properly yet... But rest assured, it will certainly be one of the first things I do teach her... That, and sight-alignment/sight-picture, breath control, anchor points and finally, proper release... As a former Marine, I figure that's the proper priority of things to teach her... It's worked so far for all of the kids that I have taught how to shoot - be it rifle, shotgun, crossbow, bow or sling-shot... Regardless of which, the same principles seem to apply...

I had been waiting for tip reinforcements to arrive from Bingham's which, rather atypically, took nearly a week to receive. Well, once I had the tip reinforcements in hand, I began having second thoughts about using them. I decided, instead, to just proceed without them and save them for another bow; one that is much stronger, and therefore has far more power and potential to self-destruct...

I began by picking up Dusty and, using my disk-sander, began shaping his tips without the reinforcements. Once I had them the way I wanted, I proceeded to check and correct the tiller as the bottom limb was still a bit stiffer than the top...

After I was done with the tips, the weather in my workshop (back porch) didn't look like it was going to cooperate. In fact, it looked like some serious thunderstorms were about to rain down...

It was at this time that I decided that Bert would need her own bow-stringer. I grabbed two old small mag-light holsters, which were just sitting in my toolbox, and my recently purchased red-nylon rope. I cut a length of rope - approximately 6 feet long, and the two holsters in a way that would automagically hold the bow's limb tips while string him up. No sewing required! As you can see in the picture, there's enough holster left to make a second stringer; however, that one would require a bit of sewing knowledge...

When I got done with that, the weather still didn't look promising so I decided to figure out a way to hide the flaws of the riser limb-bolt faces. Recalling that I had purchased some scrap leather pieces from Hobby Lobby several months ago, I decided to cut a couple of pieces from a piece of black leather. Once the bow is sealed and such, I'll glue them in place and trim accordingly...

While still waiting for the weather, I decided to finish sanding the riser to remove the visible glue lines in the arrow shelf. Next I found my old true-oil walnut stain so I could stain the riser and both limbs. The intent was to bring out the grain of the wood in the limbs while trying to match (at least somewhat) the colors of the riser and limbs. In the below picture, you can definitely see that the colors now match; although you can't quite see the grain of the limbs.

HEY, so the next day, the weather FINALLY broke! It was now time to find a way to hang up the bow's parts in preparation for sealing. I found a small piece of wood: 1" x 2" x 8" and screwed in three screws. These three screws will hold each of the bow's pieces. Once I had that in place, I went and put a first coat of sealant on him. I had 1 1/2 cans of polyurethane spray to work with. As you can see, I don't use a lot of urethane sprays... Hopefully I can tweak these sealers to rid them white globs...

Having 2-hours to kill before buffing with steel wool and applying a second coat, I decided that Bert would need a new string for Dusty. At present, we've been using my tillering string. So I gathered my two-spools of dacron b50, serving (w/jig), string wax, scissors, clamps and string-jig ends. As you can see, it's a very inexpensive string jig setup for continuous loop strings...

Ok, so all said and done... Here's our new string; 50" end-to-end...

After making the string, I went web-surfing for the remaining wait-time while the polyurethane was drying. Once it was done, I took a 00 steel wool and soft-cloth to the different parts before spraying another coat of polyurethane. I think I will be going through this process some 4 or 5 more times yet but I need to call it a day for today. Hopefully I'll be finishing up with Dusty in the next day or too - assuming weather cooperates...

Ok so I have finished up with Dusty and given him to Bert. I thought you'd like to see some of the finished pictures...

Here is what the wood side of the limbs look like. It shows, very well, the wood's grain just as I had hoped for...

This picture shows the limbs with the finished riser. As I was hoping, the wood's color now match more closely. The way I chose to hide my flaws while drilling the limb holes was to glue some scrap black leather over the limb pads. I do like the contrast between the wood and the leather. I even used a piece of leather for the arrow rest. My only complaint is that the riser's grain does not match the limb's grain. Oh well, I knew that would be...

Here's a strung up pic...

Strung up from the side...

And finally, at full draw...

Unfortunately, I don't have a true reading of his draw-weight. As best I can gather, it's 20#@26" with a string that has a physical length of 50". Would that make it an AMO 54" bow? In either case, it's extremely light in my opinion. After finish sanding, there was a very drastic difference in limb tiller. Again, the bottom limb was so much more stiffer than the top. I spent a lot of time trying to get it back to good standing and lost a lot of weight in the process. It's still not looking quite right though.